


A Werewolf in Space

by BluePlanetTrash



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comfort/Angst, Domestic Fluff, Family Secrets, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Secrets, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Werewolf Lance, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-02-11 21:23:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12944223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluePlanetTrash/pseuds/BluePlanetTrash
Summary: A series of connected stories starting from the moment that the paladins find out that Lance is a werewolf. Ranging from comfort to angst.





	1. Chapter 1

Lance growled in his head at himself when he got knocked over for the fifth time that training session. He knew that if he wanted to, he could rip the arms right off of these stupid training dummies. He glanced around and looked at his teammates easily picking off dummies left and right. He wanted to prove that he could defend himself, but he knew that at this point, it would just look suspicious. He clamored to his feet and lifted his rifle to his face and let loose a couple of shots, protecting the backs of his friends. He quickly turned and scaled up the wall to rest on the ledge above them, his bayard transformed and he looked down the scopes eager to protect his pack. At least he considered them his pack. Pidge finished typing some command into the main computer and the rest of the bots fell to the floor unpowered. They turned and gave each other appraising nods and smiles, they looked around confused at the lack of the blue paladin.

“Good work guys!” He called from his ledge. He snickered as their heads swiveled to look up at him. Hunk and Pidge both grinned and ran to the foot of the wall.

“Dude! How did you get up there?” Hunk asked inspecting the metal wall.

“Pure skill,” he said smugly. Shiro and Keith joined them at looking up at Lance. Shiro with an amused smile on his face, and Keith with a bit of a glare.

“What are you doing up there Lance?” He asked shortly. Lance quirked an eyebrow and shook his still formed bayard at him in question.

“Uh, sniping?” He replied. “Giving you cover from above,” he explained. Keith crossed his arms.

“You should really be focusing on your close combat Lance, you know you need it,” he smirked. Lance resisted the urge to bare his teeth and growl at the smug teen. He instead shrugged his shoulders and relaxed against the wall in an aloof manner.

“You’re just jealous that I’m better than you at something,” he replied wiping imaginary dust off his rifle and ignoring the cry of protest that came out of Keith’s mouth.

“Alright guys, we all have different strengths okay,” Shiro said trying to remedy the situation. He put his hands on Keith’s shoulders and turned him away from the wall to look in a different direction, before turning back to Lance.

“You really should work on your hand to hand though Lance,” he suggested. “I could even help you if you wanted,”

Lance thought for a moment and shrugged pulling his bayard to his chest. With this, he could fight without having to worry about the strength he puts behind it. He was about to reply when Allura’s voice came over the speaker.

“Paladins, suit up and come to the control bridge, we have a mission,” without further conversation they headed up to the bridge and met the two Alteans at their stations. The Princess turned to the team and pulled up a hologram of a planet.

“This is planet Tuei,” she began. “They had been allies of the Altea for years before the Galra took over, your mission today is to reestablish the alliance and involve them in the Coalition,” she explained. She brought up the landscape of the planet, showing that it was filled with lush greenery.

“The Tuei people are a peaceful race, interested in diplomacy among other planets and races, there should be very little problems if any on this mission,” Coran piped up happily.

“And with you there Princess, this should take no time at all,” Lance commented smiling and winking at Allura. She rolled her eyes fondly but shook her head.

“I won’t be accompanying you on this mission, Coran and I have a few chores that need to be completed on board,” she replied. “This will be a fantastic opportunity for the five of you to practice your diplomacy skills,” she suggested eying Keith, who looked sheepishly down at the ground.  

“Aw, man,” Lance whined before plopping himself down in his seat. The others did the same after a few moments. Coran stepped up beside Lance and put his hand comfortably on Lance’s shoulder.

“Not to worry my boy, you’ll be back the ship with no trouble at all,”  
  


* * *

Coran is a liar; Lance thought as he sprinted around the foliage. He lied about peaceful planets before, and this one is no different from the last. They ran through the trees trying not to lose sight of one another. Sweat poured down their faces as they heard grass and leaves crinkling under the feet of their attackers. Shiro let out a yelp as his legs suddenly bound together and he fell to the ground.

“Shiro!” Keith yelled. He stopped and ran towards their leader ignoring the pleas for him to keep going. He was soon wrapped up in a net lying about a metre away from the black paladin, struggling viciously.

“Keep going!” Lance cried when Pidge and Hunk faltered for a moment. They kept dodging the projectiles from the Tueians, and weaved between the trees. Their eyes widened when a figure sprinted out from the fog and bowled Hunk over. Pidge cried out as hands reached out to grab her and she ran closer to Lance. He tried to reach out a hand to her but was ripped away when a bola wrapped around his neck and slammed him to the ground. He choked and tried to loosen it from around his windpipe. He tried shooing Pidge away as he fell to her knees beside him, she shook her head and he could hear her let out a sob. She summoned her bayard and started cutting away the ropes that were cutting off his air supply. He saw her look up behind his field of view, but before he could look for himself he felt a sharp pain in his head and the world turned black.

* * *

His vision came back with a vengeance. Bright lights, and loud roars from a crowd. He blinked and his head lolled to the side to face Keith.

“Lance!” He gasped keeping his attention on him. “Are you okay?” he asked. He barely made a nod in response before his chin was grabbed in a vicious claw.

“Well if it isn’t our star attraction,” the chief purred. Lance’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Noticing this, he gave a sharp grin.

“Not to worry, I will explain,” he gestured down to the ring where two aliens were trying to rip each other to shreds, one of them was a Tueian and was noticeably bigger then the other, it wasn’t long until the Tueian gained the upper hand and struck a clawed hand straight through the other’s chest. Lance’s eyes widened and he flinched back, trying to get away from the claw still holding his face.

“Soon it will be you inside the ring; I was going to make everybody have a go at it, but even I hate the Galra, so I’ll give you a chance,” he grinned. “If you manage to kill your opponent in the ring, I’ll let you and your friends go,”

“Why me?” Lance asked, fear trembling in his voice. The chief’s grin somehow managed to grow larger as he leaned down to Lance’s ear.

“Because I can’t wait to see how pretty the blood is in that weak little body,” he whispered. A shiver ran up Lance’s spine and he pulled his head sharply away from the other. He laughed and grabbed Lance’s arm, pulling him away from the room.

“Don’t worry guys, I’ll get you free in no time!” Lance called to his worried teammates.

“You got this Lance!” Hunk cried tears starting to fall from his eyes. He swallowed the lump in his throat as the doors closed on them. They started down the hall, towards the arena entrance. He squeezed his eyes shut; he knew that he needed that it was likely that he was going to reveal his secret, and he was scared. God, he was terrified, but he would do anything for his pack, even if they ended up hating him. By the time they made it to the arena he decided what he was going to do; hold off until it was absolutely necessary, and if the time came, let loose.

“You may choose one weapon,” the chief voice interrupted his train of thought and he looked up. He could see into the arena through a metal gate, the opposite walls were lined with weapons of all kinds. Looking around he quickly decided on a rifle, ignoring the laugh of the chief he stepped forward. Almost immediately, the gate opened and two Tuelians dragged in the corpse of the previous opponent, they nodded innocently to the chief who returned the gesture and passed the two of them.

“Showtime blue paladin,” the chief hissed, grabbing Lance’s arm and throwing him through the gate. He regained his footing and looked up at the massive crowd around them. He looked over to his opponent and shrunk away from the gigantic creature. They were at least three or four times his size and held no weapon aside from the lethal claws on their hands.

“Good citizens of Tuei, I am pleased to announce our next competition!” A voice boomed over the crowd, silencing the cheers. Lance looked at his friends with wide, scared eyes which they reciprocated.

“For our next event, we have our reigning champion: Gar!” The crowd cheered and the Tueian lifted their arms in victory, soaking up the praise. They looked over to Lance and gave a single snarl and cracked their next. “With no loses to his name, will this be the battle of life or death?” The voice asked in mock worry. “I don’t think so, for he is up against the Blue Paladin of Voltron, the supposed marksman of the group,” he announced. Lance could feel his ears heating up in embarrassment and looked towards the ground.

“Too bad this isn’t a shooting game, huh, ladies and gentlemen,” the voice laughed, joined in by the audience.

“Furthermore, if the Blue Paladin manages to defeat The Mighty Gar, he will win the freedom of himself and his teammates, what do you say, ladies and gentlemen, are we ready?!” He cried. The crowd screamed in approval and a timer started counting down. Lance breathed out slowly and adjusted his stance to fully face his enemy. Gar quirked an eyebrow but only smirked and crouched lower to the ground.

“Remember your training Lance!” Shiro shouted just before an alarm sounded through the crowd. Gar shot forward barely missing Lance as he dodged to the right. He jumped away and fired off a few shots into Gar’s back who barely flinched and grinned over his shoulder at the paladin. Lance’s eyes could only widen in shock when Gar was suddenly in his face and had his claw dug into his abdomen, his rifle is the only thing that saved his heart from being impaled.

“I can’t wait to collect my prizes,” he said to Lance. At Lance’s confused look he continued. “Your teammates; I can’t wait to eat the yellow one, set the black one to work, and sell the red one’s body, maybe even keep the green one as a toy for myself; she is quite the pretty one indeed,” he chuckled. Lance could feel his control slipping with every word that was slipped out of Gar’s mouth.

“Maybe I’ll make them watch as I eat their friend, maybe I’ll eat him while he’s still alive, that would break their spirits, especially after watching me tear you apart from the inside out,” he said, drool was leaking from his mouth, like he could already taste his friend. Lance uttered out a surprised and disgusted noise, ignoring the pain from his stomach.

“I can’t wait to see the light fade from those pretty brown eyes when I take the green one for the first time,”

That was it.

Lance lunged forward, his teeth already razor sharp and dug into the meat of Gar’s neck, splitting it easily. He latched onto his body by digging his claws into his abdomen and his shoulder. He crunched down hard before he released and backed up allowing Gar to fall to the ground face first. A puddle of blood grew around his head and the ring fell into silence. Lance could tell that he didn’t go through a full transformation but could feel his ears pressed down against his skull, and his tail was pushed against the inside of his armour.

“I-It looks like the Blue Paladin is the winner,” the announcer said hesitantly. The crowd was silent even as Lance left the arena and was met with his teammates and the Chief who glared at the werewolf.

“Although I am angry that my champion has been defeated, I am a creature of my word, and you are free to go,”

“Thank you,” Lance mumbled as they were ushered out of the arena by guards. In silence, they started making they’re way back to the ship.

“What are you?” Keith asked after a few minutes of silence. Lance hesitated for a few moments before giving in.

“A werewolf,” he was greeted by another bought of silence.

“What the fuck,” Shiro breathed out. The other glanced at him with raised eyebrows.

“Oh come on, our friend just told us that he’s a werewolf,” he huffed turned instead to look in front of him.

“I thought you guys would be a lot more surprised than this,” Lance said hesitantly. His ears pressed harder into his skull and he crossed his arms suddenly self-conscious.

“We’re kind of flying through space and flying space lions, plus we’ve already meet like thirty different kinds of aliens already,” Pidge pointed out.

“Right,” he sighed. They only heard their footsteps thudding on the ground in the sudden awkward silence.

“So… what other myths are true?” Hunk asked.  
“Um, mermaids and sirens are real,” he thought for a second. “I’ve also met Mothman a few times,”

Keith and Pidge’s heads snapped towards them.

“Fuckin’ what?!”


	2. Chapter 2

Although the paladins were weary at first, they quickly got used to the large brown wolf that would wander aimlessly around the castle. They jumped at first and seemed uncomfortable around him but soon realized that Lance was much more at home when he was in his wolf skin. However, they did notice some amusing similarities to his canine counterparts. One of these was his love of being pet.

* * *

> **Hunk**

Hunk has always been an affectionate guy and when Lance sat down next to him when he was cooking in the kitchen, he couldn’t resist running his hand through his best friends fur right between his ears. He meant to only do a quick sweep, just enough to feel how soft the fur was, but a faint thumping sound stopped him and he looked behind him to see Lance’s tail wagging on the ground. Looking at his face he saw that Lance’s eyes were closed and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth. Hunk took his hand away and almost burst out in laughter when Lance’s eyes opened and his tail thumped to the ground. He looked up at Hunk and let out a low whine and shuffled forward to come closer to Hunk’s leg. Hunk decided to test his luck and focused instead on chopping the strange fruit in front of him. He let out a surprised gasp when Lance leaned his entire weight on his leg and let out another sad whine.

“Geez, okay Lance I get it,” he said grabbing onto the counter so he wouldn’t fall over. Lance let out a pleased huff and took his side off of Hunk who immediately threaded his fingers through the fur on top of his head. After a few minutes of silent petting, Lance licked Hunk’s hand and trotted out of the room, leaving Hunk to look after him. After that incident, whenever Lance would sit by Hunk he would immediately start petting wherever he could reach on his friend.

* * *

> **Pidge**

Pidge was familiar with the antics of dogs; her family had a dog on earth after all. She was kind of expected the wants of a wolf to be a bit different, however similar the two were. This came as a surprise when she was sitting in the hanger using her laptop on the floor when Lance strolled in. Of course in his wolf form as he had been doing frequently since they found out about it. It didn’t bother Pidge as much as she thought it would; probably because she could still see a little bit of Lance even when he was a wolf. She spared him a glance when he came in and quickly looked back at her work, wanting to get it done as quickly as possible.

“Ack!” She cried out in surprise when a weight settled against her back and curled around her. She looked down and by her right arm, Lance’s head settled against the ground.

“Lance, what are you doing?” She asked with a raised brow. He nudged her arm with his nose. She brought it away and settled it back on her keyboard.  
“I know what you’re doing Lance, I have a dog,” she replied get back to her work. He let out a little whine and flopped onto his side and started wiggling around. Pidge tried to ignore it and focus on her laptop but glanced back to her side for a second.

“Oh my god,” she whispered when big blue puppy eyes stared up at her. She put down her laptop and turned a big to get both her hands in the dark brown fur. He shuffled around her closer and she scratched through the fur on his chest and back. He let out a happy groan and laid his head on her leg. She eventually picked up her laptop again but leaned back on her friend. If anyone walked into the hanger an hour later they would find the two asleep with Pidge still leaned against the wolf.

* * *

> **Shiro**

Unbeknownst to the other paladins save for Keith; Shiro had a husky waiting for him at home and when he saw Lance walking around he immediately thought of his baby, Koko. He didn’t know how Lance would react if he started petting him so he laid off and looked on with a pout whenever Lance would pass by. That is until one day, he was reviewing the teams training notes standing with one hand at his side and one touching the screen. Suddenly he felt a head nudge under his hand and he looked down to see Lance, one ear pressed under the hand and his tongue sticking out in a dorky dog smile.

“Awww” Shiro immediately gushed bringing his other hand up to his face. Lance didn’t expect this reaction and cocked his head making Shiro choke. He knelt down on the floor and started scratching him behind his ears and petting down his back. The sound of a thumping tail sounded through the room. Shiro started cooing at Lance and praising him as he pets the wolf’s fur, even going so far as to squish his face up and kiss the canine’s nose. Lance didn’t seem to mind and happily soaked up the attention with a happy whine and a soft headbutt to the leader’s chest.

“Am I interrupting something?” Keith asked as he walked into the room and heard Shiro baby talking Lance. Shiro jumped up with a blush and tried to act nonchalant.

“No, what are you talking about?” He asked bringing up the plans again. Keith only quirked an eyebrow when Lance rested his chin on Shiro’s leg to look up at him with sparkly eyes.

“Dude, just pet him, everyone else has been,” he groaned looking at the heartbroken expression on Shiro’s face. Without a word, Shiro dropped to his knees and hugged Lance around the neck and started scratching his back as he mumbled into the dark fur.

“Augh,” Keith rolled his eyes before leaving the two to themselves. From them on whenever Lance found Shiro, he would push his head into the leader’s hand or rest on his leg if he was sitting. He would always break and start petting Lance with a big grin. He thought that Hunk would be his favorite person to go to for pets, but Shiro seemed more than happy to provide the werewolf with as much attention as he wanted, as long as it didn’t interfere with their work. Which Lance had no intention of interrupting anyway so it worked out well for everyone.

* * *

> **Keith**

While the other paladin had innocent and quite fun experiences when they first started petting Lance, Keith was not as lucky. He, Lance and Pidge were sent on a mission to dismantle a small Galra base of operation on a previously abandoned planet. The mission was relatively easy, requiring only the green lion and they quickly were able to take apart the base, but not before Lance was shot through the stomach, where his armour didn’t cover. He let out a yell and fell to the ground before he aimed his gun and shot the guard through the head ending the fight.

“Lance!” Pidge screamed. With the rest of the guards down she and Keith were able to run to Lance. He pressed his hand on the wound trying to stop the bleeding. He looked into his friend’s eyes and gave them a weak smile and a thumbs up.

“I’m okay guys,” he tried to reassure them. They propped him up and helped him to his feet.

“Can you make it to Green?” Pidge asked. He gave a short groan but nodded his head. They slowly walked towards the lion, who thankfully flew closer to them when she sensed the panic of her paladin. They dragged him up the ramp and carefully laid him down on the floor of the cockpit, with tears in her eyes Pidge jumped in the pilot’s chair and started towards the castle ship. Keith let out a sad sound as he started pressing on Lance’s wound as well.

“Lance, what are you doing?” He said when Lance started shifting into his wolf form. He only gave a low whine and flopped his head onto the ground in front of Keith. He once again went to put pressure on the wound and was glad to feel that the bleeding was stopping and the wound was starting to heal over.

“Lance, do you heal faster like this?” He asked. Lance sat up slightly to look at him with foggy eyes and gave a tiny nod. He was about to collapse against the ground again but Keith caught his head and laid it across his thighs.

“You did great out there today,” he commented softly stroking down his head and neck. Lance gave a weak wag of his tail in response and licked Keith’s wrist when it came close enough to him. “Jesus, now I know why everyone pets you, you’re way friendlier like this,”

Lance huffed but didn’t move away from the petting he was receiving. Thankfully, by the time they made it back to the Castle, Lance was completely healed and dodging Pidge’s questions about werewolf healing. He knew that eventually, she would get to do tests about it, but for now, he was exhausted and just wanted to go to sleep. He ignored the others and made his way to the lounge where he curled up on the couch and fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

He woke to a weight against him and blinked his eyes open. He couldn’t lift his head up because there was a weight lightly lying against it. He could see Hunk and Keith sitting in front of him on the game system and knew that he wasn’t in trouble. He looked towards his tail and saw Pidge watching the two of them playing the game. Which left… he lifted his head and Shiro’s head flopped in front of him still snoring lightly. He let out a snort at his face catching the attention of his teammates. They smiled at him before they turned their attention back to the game. Lance’s tail continuously hit Pidge as he wagged it, and he laid his head on top of Shiro’s chest in order to watch the game.

“Lance fucking stop, I swear to God!” Pidge screamed as his tail hit her in the face for the fifth time. He only let out an amused bark in response.


	3. Chapter 3

Usually Lance could control when and where he wanted to transform but like the cliched werewolves in fairy tales, he would transform during a full moon. As soon as he could feel the change stirring in his bones, he notified his team. What he didn’t expect was Allura telling him that the moon and sun on this planet worked on seven-day cycles and that he was going to be trapped in his wolf form for the next seven days.

“Why did we stop here?” He wailed with panic. Allura tried to calm him fruitlessly. He helplessly paced around the bridge of the ship as he watched the sun begin to set behind the planet’s clouds. He nervously started chewing on his fingernails.

“Can’t you shift before the moon rises?” Pidge asked curiously coming to stand by his side. He didn’t stop biting his fingers as he swiveled his head to face her. He shook his head before looking back out of the Castle’s screen.

“No, I lose the ability to shift on my own as soon as the sun starts setting before a full moon,” he explained. She only nodded and gently patted his back in sympathy.

“Is there anything we should be worried about before you shift?” Shiro asked joining the two of them. Lance thought for a moment before he turned to face his leader.

“Whatever you do don’t touch me while I’m transforming, I’ll be in a lot of pain because it’s forced and I probably won’t realize where I am until after,” he stated, looking into Shiro’s eyes to make sure he understood the gravity of the situation. He gulped but nodded in understanding. Lance turned to the rest of them, waiting for their acceptance as well.

“What’s going to happen?” Keith asked. He crossed his arms and stood beside Shiro and regarded Lance with slightly worried eyes.

“I’ll probably be disoriented for a little bit, and I might not be able to stand or walk for a bit afterward,” he said with a wince, remembering all the forced transformations he had over the course of his life.

“Don’t worry though, I’ll be good after about an hour,” he said trying to lighten the mood of the others.

“I don’t like this,” Hunk said simply coming up to rest his arm around Lance’s shoulders. Lance sighed and leaned his head to rest it on Hunk’s chest.

“I don’t either but it’s a part of my life,” he replied with a huff.

“Perhaps we should move somewhere more comfortable?” Coran suggested gaining the attention of the paladins. They looked to Lance, who was busy watching as dusk steadily crept closer. He nodded and started towards the doors. He’s done this dozens of times, how bad could it possibly be?

Bad.

It’s bad.

How could he have forgotten how horrible it really was?

He writhed on the floor of the lounge, clawing at his chest, and arms. Anywhere he could reach. He felt blistering hot and freezing cold at the same time. Tears trekked down his face in agony and broken whimpers and wails escaped his mouth.

“Are you sure we can’t do anything?” Pidge asked tears in her eyes as she watched her brother squirm on the ground in pain.

“You heard him, he said not to touch him,” Keith grunted back. He wanted to look away from the scene but felt compelled to watch in case something happened to Lance. Shiro put his hand in her hair to offer her some sort of comfort, while the other went to Hunk’s shoulder who was already quietly weeping.

They winced when they heard the sounds of bones snapping and clothes tearing. They watched fascinated as Lance’s features changed in front of their eyes and fur quickly grew out of his skin. It was only a few minutes later that Lance stopped twitching and laid still in front of their eyes.

“Lance?” Shiro asked cautiously. He inched a bit closer and paused when Lance opened an eye to stare up at him. Shiro slowly crouched on one knee in front of him. Lance’s ear twitched and he carefully staggered up on all fours, eyes never leaving his leader. He put one trembling leg out in an attempt to make it to Shiro but as soon as he put weight on the limb he crashed to the ground with a sad yelp.

“Lance!” Shiro exclaimed lunging forward. He lifted his head and placed it on his lap and stroked Lance’s head and ears back. Lance’s ears perked up and his tail started to thump behind him. Everyone let out a huge sigh of relief and moved forward to collapse around Lance. He looked around excited as everyone put their hands on his fur and started scratching and petting. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

Keith didn’t think that he would be spending much time with Lance this week, not when he wouldn’t be able to communicate with him very well. He expected for them to laze around in the Castle all week as they waited for the sun to come back up. What he didn’t expect was for Lance to grab his jacket sleeve in his teeth and begin pulling him to the hangers.

“Augh Lance, what the heck?” he growled tugging his sleeve away from the canine’s mouth. He didn’t give him the chance to grab it again and instead obediently started following him. He led him to Red’s hanger and gestured with his head to Keith’s speeder. He looked at him with a quirked brow and confused shrug. Lance huffed and grabbed his sleeve again, dragging him closer to the speeder and laid his hand over the seat of it. He looked up at Lance and noticed him looking at the speeder exit instead.

“You want to go outside?” He asked hesitantly. Lance barked and wagged his tail, turning his body to face the large door. Keith gave Lance one last look before he smirked and revved the engine. He sped forward, the hanger door opening automatically for the speeder. He started falling to the planet’s floor and cursed at himself. How could he forget how far up the fall from the Castle was? He worriedly looked around for Lance and his mouth dropped open when he found him right beside the speeder, calmly letting the wind flow through his fur. With a cloud of dirt they landed on the ground, Keith immediately fell off the speeder in his haste to check on Lance.

“Lance! Are you okay!?” He cried, not yet able to see through the cloud of dirt. He gasped and stepped back when a tongue wet his cheek. He looked to his left and saw the werewolf sitting, perfectly unharmed. He gave a short bark and got to his feet and faced the plains that stretched as far as they could see. Lance started trotting around Keith and the speeder, ears cocked and tail wagging.

“What? Do you want to race or something?” Keith asked looking across the horizon. The moonlight shone brightly on the surface, making everything visible from the plains to the woods he could just barely make out from this distance. Lance stopped pacing and looked at Keith as he asked the question. He stood straighter in realization.

“Wait, do you actually?” He asked for clarification. Lance barked excited and hopped around the red paladin. He chuckled and climbed back onto the speeder, once again revving the engine.

“I hope you’re ready to lose,” Keith smirked. Lance snorted and puffed his chest out. Keith let out a loud cheer as they shot forward, kicking up dust behind them.

They didn’t let up until hours later when a worried Shiro radioed to Keith speeder. They returned exhausted and Lance slumped to the ground as soon as they made it back inside. He grinned fondly and crouched near the ground and scratched behind Lance’s ears.

“You’re pretty damn fast, Lance,” he admitted. Lance’s tail thumped the ground and he let out a happy whine. He leant forward and licked a stripe straight up the side of Keith’s face. Keith sputtered and fell back, wiping his face with his forearm. Lance rolled onto his side and watched Keith with wide sparkly blue eyes.

“You’re lucky that you’re adorable like this,” he grumbled standing up and heading to his quarters. Lance barked in farewell and decided to fall asleep where he was laying. That was the beauty of being an animal after all.

Hunk wasn’t going to lie. He was drained. Emotionally and mentally drained. The worry over Lance’s situation was being less and less important. Lance seemed to be coping fine and the only one really worrying about anymore was Hunk. He knew that Lance would probably be fine by the time this week was done but he could help but worry about his best friend. He wasn’t the most concerned with his health most of the time. He tended to care more about his friends over himself. He was glad that he was able to spend most of the day with Keith yesterday, maybe they would be able to get along easier after this week was up.

He laid back on the lounge's couch. Since they were stranded here for a week and they were down a paladin, they decided that they would take this week to relax and rest up. He wanted to cook but he couldn’t find the motivation to. He honestly just wanted to go to sleep and wake up when the week was over.

“Hmm, Lance?” He asked when the brown werewolf suddenly bounded in and jumped onto the couch beside him. Lance looked at him, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. He pushed his head into Hunk’s chest and laid down on his legs. Hunk smiled widely and pulled his hands through the soft fur.

“What’s up bud?” He asked even though he knew that Lance couldn’t respond. Lance gave him a happy little whine, completed with a wagging tail and pushed his head harder against Hunk’s chest, making the paladin topple over across the couch. Hunk went to sit up again when Lance plopped himself overtop of him with his head lying on his chest.

“Dude, you know I can’t resist those eyes,” he complained when Lance looked down his snout at him. Hunk smoothed back Lance’s ears once and groaned when Lance licked the tip of his chin.

“How can you be so cute? You’re a werewolf,” he stated scrunching Lance’s face up. Lance’s face somehow went blank, as if to say ‘I’m always cute,’

Hunk rolled his eyes with a fond grin and gently began stroking Lance’s ears back again. He watched as the blue eyes slowly closed and he began making quiet snores. He wiggled around slightly to try and get more comfortable, trying hard not to disturb the sleeping canine on his lap. He finally understood what cat owners must feel when their pets lay on them.

Pidge kept to herself the days that Lance stayed with Keith and Hunk. She took the time from the team to try and improve various programs in Green and the Castle. It wasn’t really a surprise to her when Lance finally wandered to her corner of the hanger. She gave him a single glance before turning back to her computer. She thought that he would just curl up behind her like he usually did. He slightly choked when he grabbed the back of her collar and flung her up in the air.

“QUIZNACK!” She screamed. She landed with a thump and felt familiar brown fur under her hands. She peeked open her eyes and saw a smirking wolf look back at her. She gave him an unimpressed glare in return and crossed her arms.

“What the heck are you doing Lance?” she asked moodily. Lance ignored her and took a few experimental steps around the hanger. She sighed but decided to humour him. He walked towards the door and stepped out into the hallway.

“Lance, I need to get back to work,” she huffed making a move to slide off his back. With that, Lance bounded forward causing Pidge to twist her hands into his fur. She gave a shriek and tightly held on to his neck. He sprinted up the hallways, taking sharp unexpected turns making Pidge’s head spin.

“I’m going to kill you, Lance,” she hissed into his ear. He didn’t give any indication that he heard her, save from the suddenly drooping ears. She pouted wanting to be mad but sighed and pet his neck, even as they were still flying through the hallways. They passed the other residents of the Castle, barely missing them by a hair. She gave an excited whoop every time they passed someone. By the time the two of them got back to the hanger; Lance was panting and flopped to the floor and Pidge’s hair was pushed back and a large smile was splitting her face.

“Lance! That was awesome!” She said excitedly. Lance shuffled over to her and laid down with his head in her lap. She giggled and indulged the teen, happily scratching him on the top of his head.

“We gotta do that again!”

Shiro would admit it.

He was jealous.

He was jealous that Keith, Hunk, and Pidge had gotten to spend so much time with Lance. He pouted as he carefully brushed Kaltenecker, he promised Lance that he would take care of her while he was indisposed. He leaned down to put the brush back into the galvanized bucket and yelled when he was suddenly flying over the bucket and onto his back in the grass. He stared up with wide eyes and let out muffled cries when Lance flopped his front legs and chest over Shiro’s face.

He yelped when Shiro grabbed around his chest and rolled him onto the grass. He hopped up and leaned forward on his front legs, tail wagging in the air. There was a split second of hesitation before Shiro jumped up and started chasing him around Kaltenecker’s pen. They playfully circled each other and when passed the bucket, Lance grabbed the brush Shiro was using before. He trotted up to him and dropped the brush at his feet.

“No way,” he grinned looked down at the brush at his feet. He picked it up and watched Lance’s eyes follow it as he waved it in front of him. With a grunt, he threw it as far as he could. Without further ado, Lance broke into a run after it. Shiro let a wide smile come across his face as Lance practically pranced back to him with the brush clamped in his jaws. Every time Lance back the brush Shiro would obediently throw it again until Lance dropped the brush and instead flopped onto his side in front of Shiro.

“You’re gonna kill me one day Lance,” he commented immediately dropping to his knees to pet Lance. Lance yipped and squirmed on the ground to rest his snout on Shiro’s knee. Shiro bit his fist in order to stop the strangled squeal that wanted to escape his throat.

“Hashtag blessed,” he whispered into the meat of his knuckle. Lance groaned and happily wagged his tail at the attention he was receiving from his friend. This time with Lance may have had him miss Koko more but at least he wasn’t feeling jealous anymore.

Honestly, Allura didn’t think that Lance would go to her for any sort of werewolf bonding time since Altea never had any myths of the creatures like Earth did. So he didn’t have to reassure her of anything. However, she was curious about what it would be like to look through his eyes. So when he wandered into the kitchen, where she was getting a late lunch she took the opportunity to circle him with inquisitive eyes. He quirked his head in confusion and kept his eyes locked on her form.

“Hm, I wonder,” she hummed putting her finger to her chin. She kept her eyes on Lance’s form as she started shifting down closer to his level. She saw the blue eyes widen in shock as her form started morphing. As she finished her transformation, she shook the now white and brown fur that covered her body. She grinned as she looked over her body, not noticing any problems with her form. She looked over at Lance and laughed at his wide open mouth and staring eyes.

“Are you alright Lance?” She asked. He shook his head and excited bounded over to her.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” he barked. She jolted in shock but let the grin widen.

“Lance, I can understand you,” she said excitedly. She felt her tail wagging and saw Lance’s was doing the same.

“Oh man, I’m so glad I finally get to talk to someone,” he said with a relieved sigh.

“Now, then,” Allura said seriously. Lance looked at her, the tone of her voice setting off alarm bells in his head. His tail stopped wagging as he focused all his attention on her. She grinned slightly at the concern that Lance was showing.

“Teach me all about being a werewolf,” she said. At that, all the excitement that Lance was feeling before came rushing back.

“Alright, what do you want to know?” He asked sitting back on his haunches. “The behaviour of werewolves are most like dogs on Earth, which would probably be a yupper,” he admitted. Allura thought for a moment.

“What did you and your family do with your free time?” she asked. Lance had to search through the many memories that he had with his family but the ones that stuck out the most were the ones where he was playing with his siblings in their wolf forms.

“Um, me and my siblings would play a lot, you know chasing, play fighting, that sort of stuff,” he said hesitantly. Considering how well put together Allura usually was, he wasn’t sure how willing she would be, even though they had gotten closer over the past months.

Allura could see how anxious Lance was and she felt a sort of sympathy for both Lance and herself since he didn’t seem to believe Allura wanted to spend her time with him.

“So, what are we waiting for?” She asked exuberantly.

“R-really?” Lance asked with wide eyes. She huffed out a laugh.

“Of course, Lance,” she said fondly. He hopped up with a howl. 

“Let’s go!” He cheered running out of the kitchen doors. He looked back expecting Allura to be struggling with her now four legs. He yelped in surprise when he saw that she was right beside him with a cheeky smirk. He huffed and pushed himself harder, skidding around the corner that led to Kaltenecker’s pen. The cow barely acknowledged them and they barrelled in. They raced around the pasture, barking and nipping at each other playfully. Lance thumped to the ground when Allura bumped into his side, her Altean strength still remaining even in wolf form.

“Oh, Lance! I’m sorry!” she said worried stepping closer to him. He lifted his head off the ground and shook it to get rid of the grass that stuck to his fur.

“It’s fine Allura, I’ve been worse,” he said. She sighed fondly and laid beside him. Side by side, Allura looked quite a bit bigger than Lance. When he noticed this, his ears flattened and it almost looked like he had a pout on his face. Allura only puffed her chest out slightly and gave him a wolfish smirk. He ignored it and laid his head down on his paws, he wiggled slightly to press against Allura’s side.

“It’s almost like I’m laying with my big sister again,” he said quietly. Allura’s breath caught in her throat as she looked at him in surprise. She noticed that he was tense as if waiting for her response.

“Well, I am older than you,” she started. She watched his ears swivel back slightly to listen to her, “and I do see you as a little brother,” she said affectionately. Lance turned to look at her and said nothing when he nuzzled under her chin before quickly laying back down in embarrassment. She said nothing and laid down beside him, with her head laying over his neck in a form of protective embrace.

It was nearing the end of the week when the prolonged form he was stuck in began to catch up to him. He felt tired, and nauseous and didn’t want anything to do with anyone or anything. He wandered through the halls and peeked into the lounge, he saw Coran trying to hook up the GameFlux that they bought in the mall. No one had been able to play it yet and he wanted to set it up for Pidge and Lance when he was back to normal.

“Oh, Lance,” he said with a smile when he heard a whine and felt a head being pressed against the back of his leg. He turned and frowned when he saw the sad state he was in. He was trembling where he stood and swaying unstably.

“I heard what Allura did yesterday,” he said gently stroking Lance behind the ears. Lance looked at him in confusion but once again found himself in shock when Coran started transforming before his eyes. He almost choked when he noticed that Coran still had a bit of his moustache even after transforming. It wasn’t especially noticeable but one his uncle back home had a handlebar moustache just like it so he knew what it looked like.

“How’s that?” Coran asked proudly. Lance looked at him with envious eyes. If he thought that Allura was big than Coran was gigantic. He easily towered over Lance and looked down at him with big blue eyes.

“Honestly, I forgot that shapeshifting was an Altean thing and not an Allura thing,” he deadpanned. Coran cocked his head at Lance’s tone, not used to the teen being this blank.

“What’s wrong my boy?” He asked with concern. Lance seemed to deflate in front of him.

“I’m not supposed to stay in this form for so long,” he admitted. “I feel disgusting, my head hurts, I’m tired, I just want to human again,”

Coran looked at him with pity and walked around him to lay down against the couch. Lance looked at him curiously. Coran gestured for him to come over with his snout, which he did after a brief pause.

“Lay down, Lance,” he said quietly. Lance curled up in front of Coran, letting the warmth of the other wolf surround him.

“I know that your mind is plaguing you just as much as your body, you can confide in me, son,” he said. Coran licked a stripe up between Lance’s ears, calming him slightly. Lance slowly relaxed laying his snout on his paws and letting Coran groom him quietly as he tried to gather his thoughts.

“I miss Earth so much, I miss my family and my other friends,” he finally said. Coran didn’t stop, letting Lance continue his train of thought on his own.

“I’m angry at myself because I don’t miss them as much as I thought I should,” he admitted, which shocked Coran a bit. “Especially because you guys help me forget a lot of the time,”

“I’m glad that I can be of assistance,” Coran replied honestly.

“This whole week or movement I guess, has shown me how much everyone cares about me and that means so much to me,” he whispered. Coran wanted to say more to the paladin but it seemed like the restlessness finally caught up to Lance and he was out like a light. Coran laid his head down over top of the smaller wolf and curled around him tighter. He was glad he had this time with Lance, even though he would have a mouth full of fur when he transformed back.

They were all glad when the last night started ticking by. Lance wasn’t able to get himself up off the ground anymore, he was trembling too violently to attempt it. He had already thrown up everything in his stomach and they suspected that if he was human right now, he would be bawling his eyes out.

“Don’t worry bud, there’s not much longer until the sun rises,” Shiro said stroking the fur on his neck. It was worrisome that his tail didn’t even wag anymore, usually, it wagged just at his friends being nearby.

“Here buddy,” Hunk said throwing a blanket over top of him. He whined and tried to throw it off of himself. They didn’t want to cover him until they were close to sunrise, knowing that he would be overheated. Keith leaned over and weighed down both sides of the blanket, earning a snarl from Lance.

“Hey! Do you want everyone to see your dick?” He asked annoyed, scowling at the wolf. Lance huffed but didn’t try to remove the blanket again, even though they knew he had to be uncomfortable. His writhing suddenly came to a halt and he relaxed as he began shrinking and losing hair. They watched with relieved eyes as he reverted back to his human form.

“Hey, how you feeling?” Shiro asked brushing his hair out of his face. He could feel that he was soaked with sweat. He looked up at him with bleary eyes and gave him a small smile.

“Better,” he said with a raspy voice. They all let out sighs of relief and stood up from the ground.

“I’ll go get you some clothes,” Keith said looking at the blanket that was covering Lance’s now shivering body.

“You must be starving; you did throw everything up, I’ll get you some food goo,” Hunk said with sympathy taking note of Lance’s pale face.

“I’ll go with him and get some water pouches,” Pidge said nudging Hunk with her arm. She got a smile from Hunk and they turned towards the door.

“Coran and I will get the Castle off this quiznaking planet,” Allura said crossing her arms. Both Alteans nodded at each other as if they were about to destroy the planet for the hurt it brought their paladin.

“I guess I’m on Lance duty,” Shiro said. Lance huffed but didn’t stop him from smoothing his sweaty hair out of his face. Only when everyone was making their way out of the lounge did he perk up.

“Guys?” He called out hoarsely. They turned to him in question.

“Thank you for spending time with me this week and taking care of me,” he said gratefully. They all gave him soft smiles in return.

“Dude, you’re our family you don’t need to thank us for that,” Hunk stated softly. Lance leaned back with a smile as they left. He felt the ship start lifting off shortly after and couldn’t help but give a wide smile. As Shiro’s hand continued to card through his hair, he couldn’t help but be grateful for the people around him. Even though he was billions and billions of light years away from his biological family, he still had the family he made for himself.


	4. Chapter 4

After the week of Lance being stuck in his wolf form, the team decided that they would monitor any planets for lunar activity in order to safely let Lance transform. It was about time for Lance to transform, the ache in his bones becoming unbearable. He hesitantly approached Coran and Allura and told them how he was feeling and asked if they would be able to land on a planet for a night. They happily agreed but decided that it would probably be better for him to choose which planet he wanted to land on considering that he knew what would be best for his cycle.

“I think this one looks pretty good,” he said after studying the bridge’s star map for a while. He swiped the planet over to Allura’s console so she could input the coordinates. Before she began creating the wormhole she decided to call the rest of the tea up to the bridge so they would be able to stay with Lance as he transformed.

“Whats up Allura?” Pidge asked as she and the other paladins came through the door.

“We are docking planetside for the night to allow Lance to transform,” she announced gesturing over to Lance, who was blushing and curling up slightly in embarrassment. They looked over at him with smiles on their faces.

“Sorry guys,” he said rubbing the back of his neck.

“Don’t worry about it Lance, we love you whatever form you’re in,” Hunk said picking him up in a hug. He grinned and happily snuggled into Hunk’s arms.

“Alright, opening wormhole now,” Allura announced. They watched as blue flashed in front of the Castle and they travelled through to see another planet. It looked to be a barren planet covered in sand like a dessert, they were in luck as they landed on the day side of the planet so they had a few hours to prepare for Lance’s night.

“Is there anything else we need to do to prepare?” Keith asked Lance. He thought for a moment but shook his head.

“I don’t think so,”

“So what? We just wait?” Hunk asked coming up behind him and putting his hand on his shoulder. Lance shrugged his shoulders and gave the teen a small smile. Shiro walked in, a few blankets in his arms. He walked over to the two of them and threw the blankets over top of them.

“Shiro,” Lance groaned. He laughed and ruffled his hair before walking over to talk to Pidge and Allura. They watched as the sun started lowering in the sky and the colours of red and pink stretched across the sky. Soon enough the moon started rising. Strangely the moon appeared red in the sky and they looked at it in confusion even as Lance started writhing and transforming under the blankets that Shiro brought.

“It’s like a harvest moon,” Keith said in awe as he looked at the moon. It was much closer to the planet than the moon that orbited Earth.

They switched their attention back to their teammate as his transformation seemed more violent than the last time they saw it.

“Is this normal?” Pidge whispered to Hunk who was nervously wringing his hands together.

“I don’t think so,” he replied, they could tell that he wanted to get to his knees and comfort the werewolf but wasn’t about to ignore his friend’s warning. They let out a sigh of relief when he finally stilled and could see his chest heaving up and down for a breath. They immediately started forward ready to comfort and pet him like they did before.

“Hey Lance, are you okay?” Shiro asked crouching low towards him. Lance’s eye snapped open and looked over at the approaching figures. Shiro reached out with his galra hand, intending to stroke his ears back like he usually did.

With a loud snarl, Lance leapt up and clamped his teeth down on his cybernetic arm and started trashing it around. Shiro let out a scream and held fast to his upper arm trying to get himself steady. With a loud screech of metal, his teeth ripped through the metal and Shiro flew back in shock. The galra arm dropped from Lance’s jaw with a loud snarl and he stalked forward. He jumped forward again, this time aimed at Pidge with teeth and claws bared. A yelp came out of his mouth when Hunk’s fist struck him on the side of the head and neck, making him fly away from the ground in a heap.

“Sorry!” Hunk called tearfully, pulling Shiro up and pulling them out of the room. They ran through the Castle hearing Lance’s claws clicking on the floor in the distance behind them. They slammed the door to the training deck open and before they could seal it, Lance forced his body through the closing doors. He paced on the other side of the room, drool slipping out of his mouth to drip onto the floor. With a single twitch, he was sprinting towards the paladins but was slammed back into the floor as Coran transformed and running into him. Allura followed a second later and circled him the opposite way of Coran.

“Lance, stop this!” She demanded. Lance shook his head slightly as if he was getting rid of a voice in his head. He was twitching all over and foaming at the mouth as he watched the two of them warily.

“Lance, can you hear us?” Coran asked with worry. Lance didn’t show any signs of knowing what the two of them were saying and only watched them eerily before looking back over at the paladins. He shook his furry head again and focused on Allura. Without a second thought, he jumped on top of Allura, and attempted to sink his claws into her. She yelped and threw him off of her, this was nothing like the play fighting they did. This was dangerous and scary. He actually wanted to hurt her.

“Please Lance,” she cried as he came forward again. He sprinted towards her again, jaw open, ready to rip into her throat. Thankfully Coran was quicker and clamped down on the side of his neck, and held him to the ground. He flailed his legs around trying to get off of the ground and let out awful growls and snarls at the Altean. The paladins watched the blood from Hunk’s punch and saliva drip out of Lance’s mouth onto the floor. He looked completely feral, they didn’t want to admit it but he was terrifying them. Especially since he had completely ripped Shiro’s arm, who was still looking at the port in shock. Coran held him securely though, firmly but not enough to cause any more damage to him.

* * *

Lance couldn’t see anything but danger around him. Red in colour and wriggling around him tauntingly. It started with the sentry’s arm coming towards him. He couldn’t be captured, he had to help his friends and get back to Earth. He had to get rid of it but before he could, a massive galra punched him in the face. He had to go after them though, no matter much his jaw hurt.

He couldn’t let them escape. He had to protect the team.

He forced his way inside their ship, he had them trapped now. There was one galra that was smaller than the others, he could take that one first. Then he could worry about the others. He didn’t account that they would have yuppers though, big aggressive ones at that.

“Lance, stop this!”

What?

Yuppers don’t know how to say anything but yup. Did they mutate this one or something? How did it know his name?

There were too many questions but he couldn’t focus on them right now, he had a job to do. If he had to go through the yuppers to do it, then that’s what would have to happen.

“Lance can you hear us?” he just barely heard it this time, too focused on his target to pay attention to the other yupper he encountered. He moved his attention back to the galra pressed against the wall. One of them was inspecting the sentry’s sparking arm. They usually didn’t give another shit about the sentries, they were easily replaced. Why was this one so special? No. Not important. He shook his head and focus on his target, the smaller yupper. He lunged forward trying to take it off guard but it launched him off of it and he skidded across the room. He only had a few more chances before they all ambush him, he needed to take care of this. He tried to grab the yupper again but was attacked by the second one. He yelped when he was slammed onto the floor in front of the group of galra. He couldn’t imagine what they were going to do to him. He struggled frantically, snarling in the hope that he would scare the yupper that was holding him. His chest heaved in breaths and he ceased his struggling, trying to gauge the group in front of him.

There were four of them in the group, three galra and one sentry. It was still strange, the sentry was acting strangely human-like. It was looking at the missing limb as if it was in shock. The galra looked between the sentry and him with concerned and terrified expressions on their faces. Why did they look so worried? He was at their mercy, why weren’t they trying to kill him?

He had never seen galra dressed like this either, they did have on the normal dark armour but they didn’t have any weapons. He had never seen a galra that wore glasses before, he thought that they had perfect eyesight for some reason. A dark purple headband was also a surprise he’s never seen anyone but Hunk wear a headband like that. A deep sense of unease planet itself in his stomach as his eyes roved over the other two. A gasp tore it’s way out of his throat as he saw the knife pointed defensively towards him. That was Keith’s knife. He never let that knife leave his possessions, it wouldn’t be anywhere near here. He already had an idea what was happening, but a final look at the sentry confirmed it. It had a deep gouge in the middle of its face, it wasn’t very visible unless you looked closely since the metal was the same colour through and through.

“I did this,” he whispered out. With that, the illusion around him collapsed and he saw the full-blown terror in his friend’s eyes. The shock Shiro was going through as he looked at his ripped off arm. The quiet growls that were coming from Coran’s mouth as he held him down.

Immediately a loud whine came from Lance’s mouth as he stared over at the paladins. They focused on his face when he let out the sound, from Allura and Coran’s side, they heard a loud drawn out sob. Coran unclamped from around his neck and Lance leapt up and ran to the corner of the room away from them and curled up.

“Lance?” Coran asked walking forward slightly. Lance pushed his head onto the wall and refused to look at him.

“Please leave me alone,” he said quietly. Coran hesitated slightly but backed away. As he walked back to the other paladins he transformed.

“He wishes to be alone,” he informed them sadly.

“What? He almost just killed us and he wants to be left alone?” Keith asked angrily. He crossed his arms and glared over at the corner of the room. He felt a hand come down on his shoulder and turned to look at Shiro.

“Do you really think he meant to though?” He asked with a frown. Keith huffed but looked down at the ground.

“I’m not leaving this room guys,” Hunk said sternly sitting on the ground and watching Lance.

“Me neither,” Pidge agreed sitting beside him. Shiro looked down at them with a smile.

“I guess that’s, that,” he said sitting on the other side of Hunk. Hunk looked over to look at his arm.

“Well, maybe I’ll leave for a second to get my tools and maybe we can do something about your arm,” he said with a smile.

“Yes, that would be pretty handy,” he deadpanned waving his stump at him. Pidge choked and burst out laughing.

“Goddammit Shiro,” Keith groaned wiping his hands down his face. Shiro shrugged and laid back as Hunk got up to gather his tools. He sent Lance one last glance before he left through the door.

* * *

As the sun started peeking up over the horizon, Coran was able to walk over and throw a blanket over the unmoving wolf. They watched in pity as his transformation began again but it was nowhere as near violent as the earlier one had been. They got and began walking towards him again. He peeked his head out and as he saw them coming closer, burst into fresh tears.

“I’m so sorry!” he bawled curling the blanket around him. “I don’t know what happened, that’s never happened to me before, I’m so so sorry,”

“Lance it’s okay,” Allura started lifting her hands up calmly.

“No, it’s not okay! I could have killed someone!” He argued tears rolling down his face in frustration and anger at himself.

“Lance, the only one that got hurt last night was you, we’re all completely fine,” Keith said gesturing around at each other.

“Really?” He asked sceptically. He looked around at all of them, it didn’t look like anyone had gotten hurt until his eyes rested on Shiro. Or more specifically, his arm.

“I did that, didn’t I?” He asked shakily pointing at the bare port on his arm.

“Well, yes, but I finally get to get rid of my connection to the galra and Hunk and Pidge are going to build me a better one,” he said kneeling on the ground in front of him. He opened his remaining arm open wide, an obvious invitation to hug. Lance shrunk back slightly because of the memories but after a moment shuffled forward and fell into Shiro’s embrace. Without a word, everyone else joined in and held on as Lance cried into Shiro’s shoulder again. He didn’t deserve to feel so loved after everything that happened that night, but they thought differently. They thought that he needed this after everything that he had been through.

Even if he did go through someone’s arm in the process.

In Lance’s opinion though, the new one was much better.

It threw much more smoothly than the other, and much further. Making their games of catch even better than the others.


	5. Chapter 5

When Allura looked at Lance with a solemn expression on her face, he knew that he was in for some bad news.

“You might as well spit it out now Allura,” he said with a sigh. She nodded and brought up the holoscreens.

“We’ve been contacted by the leaders of the planet Draycott and they are requesting an alliance with us,” she announced, sending the files to their separate consoles. They pulled up the pictures of the planet and looked back over to Allura with wide eyes.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Lance groaned slumping back in his seat.

“Unfortunately not,” Allura sighed, more than used to the language that the paladins used by now.

“What is even happening here?” Keith asked, his head tilting side to side like a confused puppy.

“Draycott’s atmosphere keeps their sun and moon in the same position in orbit on several day cycles, unfortunately, we’re going to be there during that particular cycle,”

“Can’t we reschedule or something?” Lance asked.

“We’re paladins of Voltron, we can’t just reschedule,” Shiro reasoned with an unhappy grimace. Lance pouted but didn’t argue any further.

“Yes, also the leaders of Draycott insisted that we put a priority of their alliance over all other matters,” Allura informed them with a frown.

“What? And we’re going to go form an alliance with them?” Pidge asked wrinkling her nose.

“I know, trust me, but the Draycotts are a highly intelligent race and have been able to keep out of the Galra’s hands since before Altea was destroyed, they could be a valuable asset to our mission,”

“Are you sure? It doesn’t seem like they really want to help other people,” Hunk asked, looking through his files.

“We’re not completely obligated to form an alliance, we can leave at any time without it if they demand too much,” Coran added. They agreed and started on their way to Draycott, within a single wormhole jump they could see the planet in the distance. With that Lance doubled over in his chair, his arms wrapped around his stomach.

“Lance? Are you okay?” Hunk asked looking over at his friend.

“Yup,” he rasped. His hair parted as his wolf ears popped up on top of his head. He hurriedly tugged his pants down slightly as his tail began to appear.  He was completely used to the transformation and it was much less painful than a full-moon transformation. After a few minutes of burning and aching shivers running through his body, he sat up straighter, sweat rolling down his forehead. His ears were pressed against the top of his head and his tail was twitching widely behind him. He startled when Hunk’s hand came down on his shoulder.

“Are you alright?” Hunk asked again.

“Yup! I’m good!” He said cheerfully turning to look up at the worried paladin. He stretched his arms above his head and jumped up from his chair to pace around the room.

“Are you sure? Do we need to postpone our visit?” Shiro asked in concern. Lance’s head whipped over to look at Shiro.

“What? No! No, we don’t need to postpone, we can’t,” Lance argued shaking his head frantically.

“Unfortunately, Lance is right, the leaders probably have already detected the Castle in their system and are awaiting our arrival,” Allura sighed looking at Shiro.

“Alright, lets suit up then,” Shiro decided, they nodded and headed towards the hangers as Allura and Coran started to steer the Castle to land on Draycott.

Lance huffed annoyed as he pulled his body suit on, stuffing his tail uncomfortably tight against his skin. He pouted as he looked at his helmet, not excited to try and wedge it over his ears. With a sigh he pushed it on to his head, pressing his ears flat to his head. With a slight shudder, they felt the Castle landing on the ground beneath them and they made their way to the lift to meet the Alteans.

“Everybody ready?” Shiro asked glancing at each member of Voltron. They nodded their heads and Allura activated the lift. As they began to descend to the ground, they didn’t see the crowd that they were used to seeing and instead only saw a small gathering of about seven or eight aliens waiting beneath the ship. As they landed, the group moved forward to greet the team.

They were strangely humanoid, except for their off coloured skin and their gigantic size. They were at least three heads taller than Hunk and although they were on the thinner side, they also had defined muscles along their arms. They were draped in silky robes, much like the ones Lance had seen in history while studying about Rome.

“Greetings, Voltron,” one of the aliens said as they got close. He had a smile on his face and by the circlet on his head, assumed to be the king of Draycott.

“Greetings, I’m Princess Allura of Altea,” Allura responded politely, bowing her head slightly before turning to the rest of the team.

“This is Coran my royal advisor, the black paladin Shiro, the red paladin Keith, the green paladin Pidge, the yellow paladin Hunk, and-” she started before being cut off by the king moving forward to take Lance’s hands in his own.

“The blue paladin Lance,” he said almost mesmerized. “I’ve heard much about you blue paladin, I’ve come to admire you,” he admitted looking into Lance’s eyes.

“Oh, uh thanks,” he said with a smile.

“I apologize, I got ahead of myself, I am King Evenon of Draycott,” he said turning back to look at Allura. She looked annoyed as he fawned over Lance, until he turned to apologize to her.

“It’s quite alright, I can understand the excitement of seeing a paladin of Voltron for the first time,” she nodded her head. “Shall we go and negotiate the conditions of our alliance?” She asked.

“Actually, there is only one condition that I require before our alliance can be completed,” he said with a wide smile. Allura paused in shock.

“Really now? That sounds quite far-fetched,” she admitted. Evenon laughed, his shoulders shaking.

“Yes, I admit it does seem too good to be true but really there isn’t much that we need from you other than your friendship in these trying times,”

“Very well, what is your condition?” She asked curiously.

He turned to look over at Lance again, affection clearly across his face.

“I just wish for the blue paladin to accompany me for the night, it is Draycott’s summer festival,” he said sending him a blinding smile. Lance’s face lit up with a blush and his eyes went to the ground in embarrassment. When he looked up, he saw Allura looking at him waiting for his approval. His eyes darted over to Evenon and saw his eyes looking at him pleadingly.

Obviously, he couldn’t refuse to go with him. Their entire alliance depended on him going on this date. Oh, my God. This was a date. His hands came up to cover his face before he spread his fingers to look at Allura and give her a shallow nod.

“We agree to your terms,” she stated. “After Lance comes back, we’ll finish the alliance and we’ll be on our way,”

“Thank you so much Voltron,” he said with a relieved smile, he turned to Lance. “I’ll be back in two vargas to pick you up, wear something nice,”

Lance nodded and watched as he walked back to the group and they left towards presumably the kingdom. He couldn’t believe it. Someone liked him that much that just a date with him was going to get them an alliance? He was absolutely giddy with excitement and turned to the rest of the paladins with an excited smile.

“Aww, my baby is going on his very first date,” Hunk cooed, walking forward to pinch his cheeks. Lance scowled and pulled his face away from him.

“Come on, you got to get ready for your date!” Pidge said excited, grabbing Lance’s hand and dragging him back to the lift. He yelped stumbling onto the platform and held fast to where he reached out to Hunk.

“Make sure he gets you back at a decent time,” Shiro said sternly, crossing his arms.

“Not you too Shiro,” Lance cried.

“No one is good enough for my little boy,”

“SHIRO! STOP!”

* * *

 

“Are you sure that I look okay? Maybe I should put my paladin armour back on,” he sighed. He looked at himself in the mirror. Allura and Coran had found a few Altean outfits in storage and brought his a few to try, even cutting a hole in the back of the pants for his tail. His ears were pressed against the top of his head, showing the others just how nervous and insecure he was feeling.

“What! No, Lance, you look great!” Hunk argued coming up to put his hands on Lance’s shoulders. Lance swallowed but nodded and gave him a small smile.

“Lance, King Evenon has arrived again, he’s waiting beneath the ship,” Coran announced from his control centre. Lance nodded and breathed out before they loaded onto the lift.

As soon as they got into the open air, he could see Evenon gazing up at the lift. Before he could think of anything further a jolt went through his body and he doubled over slightly, grasping onto the edge of the lift.

“Lance? What happened? Are you alright?” Shiro asked, his hand landing on Lance’s back soothingly. Lance grunted and forced his watering eyes open. Instead of looking at the other paladins, his eyes went to the sky.

“Is that normal?” He asked turning to Allura and gesturing up at the sky. Confused she looked up and gasped quietly.

Although they could clearly still see the sun that shared the sky with the full moon, it was obvious that the moon was overtaking more of the sky than earlier.

“Will you be okay?” Shiro asked, never taking his hand off Lance’s back.

“I should be, as long as the sun stays in the sky,”

“It should,” Allura assured him. “I assume that the moon overtook most of the sky because it is closer to night now,”

Lance nodded his head and straightened before the lift touched the ground. He wasn’t willing to risk the alliance just because he felt a little uncomfortable. He wasn’t about to let Evenon see his weakness either.

“Ah, Blue Paladin, how lovely to see you again,” he stated happily striding forward.

“You can call me Lance, your majesty,” he bowed politely.

“Only if you call me Evenon,” he said taking one of Lance’s hands and kissing it gently. He blushed and looked helplessly at the rest of the team and saw them smirking at him. He pouted and turned back just as Evenon brought his face back up.

“Shall we?”

“Of course,” he slipped his arm through Evenon’s offered one. With one last glance to his friends, he started leading Lance away through the forest.

* * *

 

It wasn’t until they were in the middle of exploring the various stands set up for the festival that Lance felt the first twinge of pain in his abdomen. Thankfully, they were stopped looking at a few painted decorations so Evenon didn’t notice him flinch. He stepped back to look up at the sky and saw that the sun was almost completely set.

“Um, Evenon?” He called quietly.

“Yes, Lance?”

“The sun, does it always stay in the sky?” He asked putting at where it was setting.

“Oh, yes it does, doesn’t yours?” He asked with a confused tilt of the head.

“No, the sun and moon’s cycles are separate,” he said wistfully.

“How fascinating,”

“Yeah, there’s no place like Earth,” with the thought of home in his mind, his body gave a violent shudder and sweat started pouring down his forehead. He knew that his half wolf transformation was going to stay put, but he knew that if he fully shifted he would feel so much better.

“So, how come you chose tonight?” Lance asked. Hopefully, he would say no reason and they would be able to reschedule for tomorrow while the sun was higher up.

“Tomorrow morning, we will begin migrating underground for the winter season, its why we put so much priority on your visit, we didn’t get word of your position close to our system until very recently,” he stated with a smile. Lance smiled in return.

_Fuck._

“Wow, sounds like a lot of work,” Lance guessed.

“Yes, everyone including myself will work through the day and night for the next couple days before going underground, thats why we hold this festival, to lift our spirits before going to work,”

_Double Fuck_

“Well, let’s make the most of it then,” Lance smiled, dragging Evenon down the lines of stalls. Even if he wasn’t feeling great, he could help Evenon have a good night at least.

* * *

 

He could feel his skin heating progressively through the night. He took him on a tour through the small city, highlighting several landmarks. Through his pounding headache, he nodded and smiled at the appropriate times and even threw in a few jokes and comments that got a laugh out of the King. However, while they were watching the citizens dance in the square, Evenon leaned over in concern.

“Lance, are you alright? Your face is quite red,” he commented reaching up to lay his hand on his forehead. “Your temperature is very high,”

At that moment all Lance wanted to do was tell Evenon how he was feeling and what was happening to his body but the lingering fear that it would ruin the alliance and Evenon’s night stopped him.

“I’m fine, this is normal for my species,” he lied taking Evenon’s hand in his own instead. He chuckled when he caught sight of the blush on the King’s face.

“Alright, if you’re sure,” he conceded before standing and offering a hand out to Lance. He took it and Evenon easily hauled him up off the ground.

“There is one more place I would like to take you,” he requested looking to Lance for permission.

“Alright, lead the way,” he said with false cheer. He wanted to go home. He wanted to go back to the Castle.

Every step he took was beginning to feel like agony. His breath huffed out of his mouth, and pain laced up his legs. He bit his lip, afraid that he would let out a yelp at any moment.

He could faintly hear the sound of voices drawing closer and Evenon pushed past a line of hanging ivy. His eyes widened at the sight of the massive lake. It was surrounded by groups of citizens that were excitedly chatting to each other and glancing at the lake every few minutes. What really caught his attention though, was the way the lake was glowing sky blue.

“It’s beautiful,” he whispered in awe.

“Yes, but at just the right time, it’s even more beautiful,” he said mysteriously. Lance froze at those words.

“How long will it take?” He asked trying not to sound rude. By the way Evenon tapped his chin in thought, he guessed he sounded merely curious.

“No one really knows for sure, it seems to change every year,” he concluded.

“Wow, um, mysterious,” he gulped. He already felt like he wanted to scratch off his own skin, now he had to wait even longer to safely transform?

“Indeed it is, oh, there is one of my advisors, do you mind if I go talk to them?” He asked turning to Lance.

“Not at all, go ahead,”

When Evenon was safely out of range, his facade dropped and he dropped to the ground, curling himself into a ball. He let out a low whine and pushed his hot face into his knees. Thank God, it seemed like Draycott didn’t have pets or very many animals because his ears had been pressed to his head the entire time. His friends would have known immediately that something was wrong.

His stomach was turning with nausea and hoped that the show would be over soon so he wouldn’t throw up in front of Evenon. He let a few tears roll down his cheek before trying to wipe them away. He could be strong. He only had a little bit more to go before he could go back to the Castle.

A hand was pushed onto his shoulder and he jolted up looking over to see that Evenon had returned.

“It’s starting,” was all he said before a bright light burst from the lake, the same glowing blue as the water. He watched in awe as orbs of light burst from the water, almost like fireworks. He clenched a hand in the fabric of his shirt.

It didn’t help the pain though.

* * *

 

The team was extremely worried. Through out the night, they were monitoring the sun’s position. Lance had told them that he was uncomfortable before he left, but now that it was barely grazing the sky, they knew that he had to be in pain.

They were tempted to go out and find the two of them to check on Lance’s condition but knew that he wouldn’t like it.

A huge sigh of relief came from all of them when Coran announced that he could see the two of them returning from the forest. He didn’t get out anything else before they were cramming themselves in the lift and descending towards the floor. By the time they got there they composed themselves and calmly filed out.

Immediately they knew something was wrong. Lance’s ears were flat and his tail was dragging along the ground behind him. A smile was still stretched across his face though and his arm looped around Evenon’s. They could see the relief though, when he turned and saw them.

“Hey, guys!” He called cheerfully with a wave. He slipped away from Evenon and joined the others.

“With this our alliance is complete, Draycott will always be on your side,” Evenon said as he made it to Allura, who was standing in front of the paladins.

“Thank you,” she handed Evenon one of the communication devices. “With this, you can contact us at any time that you are in grave need of assistance,”

“Thank you,” he bowed his head slightly and turned to look at Lance. “Lance, it has been an absolute pleasure, I thank you for your company tonight,”

“I had an amazing time, thank you,” he smiled politely. Evenon nodded and turned from them, making his way back to the forest. They watched until he disappeared beneath the trees.

Immediately, Lance shot into the lift barely letting the rest of them on before it started ascending to the Castle.

“What’s happening?” Hunk asked, hands hovering anxiously over Lance’s now trembling form.

“I have to transform, I feel so sick and it hurts,” he sobbed out, pressing his hands to his eyes. The lift jolted as it docked into place and Lance stumbled out. He started fumbling with his clothes, stripping it off his feverish skin. Coran looked over at him in concern and abandoned the controls.

Lance gagged as he struggled to pull off his clothes, now completely ignoring everyone in the room. As soon as everything was off, he started to transform and slumped to the ground in a furry pile. They could still see his form shaking in exhaustion and his blue eyes were slightly glassy.

Coran quickly transformed and laid beside the paladin.

“I’m okay Coran,” he tried to assure the Altean.

“You almost weren’t though,” he pointed out disapprovingly.

“I couldn’t just leave,” he argued weakly. “It wouldn’t have been right,”

Coran sighed in exasperation and laid his head over Lance’s

“Sometimes your heart is too big for your own good,”


	6. Chapter 6

For the first time in a long time, Allura was smiling when they met her on the bridge. She practically bouncing in place as she waited for everyone to file in.

“Uh… what’s up Allura?” Pidge decided to finally ask. Her head whipped over to stare at Pidge making the girl flinch in shock.

“I’m glad you asked Pidge,” Allura practically sang before turning to look more at Lance. “Planet Yupriupra contacted us, and express an interest in meeting you Lance,” she said. Lance’s eyebrow rose in surprise.

“Me?” He asked pointing at himself.

“Yes!” She cheered moving from her platform to stand in front of him. “There planet completely slipped my mind because we only visited it once when I was a child, but the Yupri are just like you!”

“What? Like me?”

“Yes! They transform into wolves and have a forced transformation during the full moon!”

“Holy crap!” He finally processed the information and grabbed Allura’s shoulders in excitement. “And we’re going there?”

“As soon as word spread about you, they contacted the Castle and wanted to meet with us, especially you,”

“Oh my god, it’s been so long since I’ve seen another wolf, now we’re going to a whole planet of them?” Lance marveled. The rest of the group watched him with amused smiles.

“When are we going?” He asked frantically. Allura laughed and pushed him back, not unkindly.

“We don’t have any missions we have to get to, so we’re going right now, or whenever all of you are ready,” she said, looking over to address the rest of the paladins. They all glanced up at Shiro who gave them a nod and a smile.

“Looks like we’re all ready to go,” he confirmed. Lance squealed and ran to his seat, ready to wormhole already. With loud laughed the rest of them followed suit; the paladins to their chairs and Allura and Coran returning to their stations. In his excitement, he let his ears and tail appear. His ears were perked high on his head and his tail was wagging excitedly behind him.

“Princess? When we get there is it specifically a visit? Or do we have to negotiate an alliance?” Shiro asked as they prepared to open a wormhole.

“It’s a visit, they assured us that they were already on Voltron’s side and needed no further negotiations to join the alliance,” she informed them. Already, this trip was sounding like a very good one. They didn’t have to go through days of meetings, they were already in the planet’s favour, and Lance got to see people of his kind again.

As they started through the wormhole, Coran started reading the lunar charts for the planet and happily turned to regard Lance.

“It looks like planet Yupriupra has a similar lunar cycle to Earth and the next full moon is going to be tomorrow,”

“Whoa, that’s a first,” he replied in amazement.

“It seems like we’re in for a good time then,” Keith commented, leaning back in his chair.

“Do you think they’re telling the truth too?” Hunk asked nervously.

“Of course! The Yupri are a very truthful species and very kind, even if Lance wasn’t a werewolf they would have eventually contacted us for a visit,” Coran said happily moving away from his console as soon as the wormhole was closed. “I have many friends living on Yupriupra, oh I can’t wait to see them again!”

The rest of them looked at him in confusion and a small bit of pity. If Coran had friends on the planet they were more then likely dead by now.

“I know! I can’t wait to see Refia again!” Allura added.

Okay. Now they were just confused.

“Not to sound mean or anything, but wouldn’t they be long gone by now?” Pidge asked meekly. She stared when the two of them started laughing maniacally.

“Hahaha, the Yupri, dying?” Coran gasped out between laughs. “Can you believe it Lance?”

“Um… I’m just as confused as they are?” He shrugged. Immediately their laughs stopped and they looked at him in shock.

“You aren’t immortal?” Allura asked baffled. Lance’s mouth dropped open and he started shaking his head and waving his arms around.

“What? No! Of course not!” He insisted. “The longest a werewolf has lived was maybe 108 or something,”

“How fascinating, although your species are quite similar, to think you have such a difference between you two,” Coran mused, his finger curling in his moustache.

“WAIT! ARE YOU SAYING THESE PEOPLE ARE IMMORTAL!?” Pidge sputtered, slamming her hands down on her console.

“LIKE WILL NEVER DIE IMMORTAL!?” Hunk added with a yelp. Coran and Allura jumped back in surprise.

“Yes?” she answered questioningly.

“Oh my god, we’re going to meet immortal werewolves,” Pidge grinned looking over at Keith who had a similar grin on his face.

“Hey, what makes them so different from me?” Lance pouted crossing his arms and sinking into his seat.

“They actually sound like the werewolves from legends,” Keith stated like it was obvious.

“You keep up this attitude and I’m not going to introduce you to Eustice when we get back to Earth,” pointing an accusing finger at Keith, who immediately scowled and sunk into his chair but didn’t say anything else.

“Eustice?” Shiro asked with a quirked brow.

“Mothman,” Lance said simply and with dead-eyes Shiro nodded and turned back in his seat.

“Prepare for landing paladins,” Allura announced before they started to descend through the atmosphere. He excitedly started bouncing in his seat, his eyes darted across what he could see of the horizon. It was getting close to dusk and it seemed like they wouldn’t be able to see a lot of this planet because of that. It looked surprisingly like Earth too and he couldn’t help the same amount of homesickness that crawled into his stomach. He tried to dull it down, in case these wolves could easily sense emotions like his family could. He took a deep breath in and out as the ship shook, finally landing on the ground.

“Are you ready my boy?” Coran asked laying his hand on his shoulder as he went to go to the lift.

“As I’ll ever be,” he grinned, letting Coran lead him to the lift. As they traveled down to the ground, Lance suddenly remembered.

“Guys, don’t be weirded out if they’re…affectionate,” he warned. They turned to him in confusion, except for Coran and Allura and rushed to explain.

“It’s something about humans and wolves both being social creatures so we’re kind of double social and just really like pretty much anyone we meet,” he explained sheepishly. “They’ll probably rub faces with you as a greeting,” he turned to look at Coran for confirmation and he nodded his head in agreement.

“Is anyone uncomfortable with that?” He asked. They glanced at each other before shaking their heads, making Lance let out a huge sigh of relief. The lift shuddered as it hit the ground and the doors barely opened before Allura and Coran were squeezing out between the doors.

“REFIA!” Allura cried running forward and jumping into the arms of one of the people waiting. She spun the Princess around happily before setting her back on the ground and moving to nuzzle the side of her face.

“Percival, so wonderful to see you again,” Coran stated warmly clasping hands with an older man, which didn’t really make sense to the paladins since they said that the wolves were immortal. Lance, however, could tell that this man was the alpha of the pack and much older than the rest of the wolves around them.

“You as well Coran,” he laughed dragging Coran forward wrapping his arms around him affectionately. He was much taller than Coran and was almost completely enveloping him in his arms. Over the top of his head, his eyes fell on the paladins.

“Welcome Paladins of Voltron!” He greeted cheerfully. At his booming voice, the rest of the wolves started forward to surround the paladins. There was an obvious twitch in Keith’s hands as he held himself back from grabbing his knife.

“Allow me to introduce them to you,” Allura said, pushing through the crowd to stand in front of the paladins.

“This is Shiro, the paladin of the Black Lion, he is Voltron’s leader,” she said pushing him towards the crowd. He startled slightly when hands gently grabbed him to pull him through the crowd. Once he was in the only thing that touched him were quick brushes across his cheeks, which made him laugh quietly.

“Keith is the paladin of the Red Lion,” before he could be pulled in, Allura sent him a hard look as if to say ‘if you pull that knife, I’ll give you something to cry about’

He pouted which quickly turned to surprise when he was lifted and brought into the crowd. He honestly thought that he would hate it but after months of forced Lance affection, it only felt familiar.

“Pidge is the paladin of the Green Lion, she is also very interested to learn more about the Yupri,” Allura said. Pidge yelped with a blush and gave Allura a betrayed look.

“We’d be happy to teach you,” one of the Yupri said, picking her up under the armpits and nuzzling the side of her face, displacing her glasses slightly.

“Oh, thank you,” she said before she was passed through the crowd.

“This is Hunk, the paladin of the Yellow Lion,” she barely got the words out before Hunk was rushing forward.

“You guys are so cool!” He said excitedly as he was eagerly accepted into the mass. Lance and Allura watched with amused smiles before Allura turned and gestured at Lance.

“And this is Lance, the paladin of the Blue Lion,” he gave them a sheepish wave in greeting. It was obvious that they realized that he was like them and they allowed Percival to step forward first. As the sight of the large man, he cowered slightly and crouched forward slowly. His ears were pressed tightly against the top of his head and his tail was curled between his legs. When he was close enough, Percival leaned over slightly and Lance timidly licked the underside of his chin. At that Percival’s tail started wagging slightly and he let out a little laugh. He scooped him up in his arms and squished his cheek against Lance. When his feet dropped back to the ground, he was swarmed by the rest of them.

He let out a little whine of happiness, and tears came to his eyes at the familiarity of the gestures.

“Now, who’s hungry?” Percival asked. A collective cheer rang out around them and they started guiding the team through the forests. The trees were lined with lanterns and softly glowed the further they walked in. They could see up ahead, the start of a clearing.

“It’s just like I remember,” Allura gasped quietly. Refia turned to her with an amused smile.

“It’s only been ten thousand years Allura,” she chuckled. Allura pouted and crossed her arms as Refia snickered beside her. The rest of the paladins looked around in amazement. Lights hung from the branches of trees and long tables were lined up beside each other. Food was laid gracefully on the tables and other Yupri were setting down even more dishes.

They were ushered to seats and they started shoveling food onto their plates.

“This all looks wonderful!” Coran commented appreciatively. He and Allura both sat further away with Refia and Percival, while the paladins sat further down the table beside each other. They were still within earshot of the Alteans if they needed to call out to them.

Halfway through the dinner, both Coran and Percival’s heads turned towards them and they glanced back curiously.

“Lance, Coran told me that on your planet, our kind is mortal?” He asked, his elbows resting on the tabletop. Lance nodded in affirmation with a smile as he swallowed the bite of food that was in his mouth.

“Oh, how old are you then?”

“I’m eighteen,” he responded quickly. The Yupri around them gasped in shock and looked at Lance with wide eyes.

“My goodness, you’re just a cub?” Percival exclaimed. Coran reached out, laying his hand on his arm.

“Not to worry, creatures from Earth grow much quicker, he is equivalent to the age of an adult here,” Coran explained to the worried alpha. Still, he looked at Lance with concern on his face.

“Yes, well…” he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck.

“That’s not bad is it?” Lance asked dropping his food back to the plate. Percival’s head whipped up.

“Oh no, not at all, we were all merely surprised,” he explained gesturing at the peering eyes surrounding them. Lance’s ears slumped against his head and he glumly looked down at his plate. He was surprised when arms wrapped around him and he was tugged into the arms of one of the women Yupri.

“Apologizes, we noticed that you smelled like our young cubs used to but we weren’t quite sure why,” she said stroking the top of his head comfortingly. Lance couldn’t help but sink into the sensation, it was similar to the way that his mother always hugged him. Obviously, it wasn’t the same but he would take what he could get.

“Princess Allura, I was wondering if you had any plans for Voltron in the near future,” Percival turned capturing Allura attention away from Refia.

“Unless we get an emergency transmission, no,” she said after a moment of thought.

“Perfect! We would like to invite you to stay for our full moon tomorrow night!” He beamed. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we would love to spend more time getting to know the new paladins better,”

“We would love to!” Allura announced after a glance at each one of her paladins. All around them, cheers rang out.

* * *

Lance was excited that he would be able to explore Yupriupra after all. As he laid in his bed, he couldn’t even decide where he would go first. It was the full moon that really had him excited though. It felt like it’s been years since he last transformed with other wolves and got to run with them. Now, he had an entire planet to keep him company.

Waking up the next day, he immediately noticed a change within the Yupri and it wasn’t a bad one per say. They just seemed more conscious of him. They would go up to him and greet him or affectionately nuzzle him before moving onto their duties.

He had an idea of what they were doing and he wasn’t exactly happy with it. He also wasn’t really upset either. They were acting much like his aunts and uncles did when he was around.

Whenever one of the Yupri had a spare moment they seemed to find Lance and coax him into playing chase with them. Every time, Lance would start without fuss. Even though he knew that they were much faster than him, they always seemed to lag enough that he was able to grasp onto their tail or another part of their body. He knew what they were doing but it didn’t stop him from having his fun. He even ignored Hunk and Pidge when they snickered at him after one such game.

“You really are a little kid,” Pidge giggled pointing up at him.

“It’s not my fault that they keep treating me like one,” he argued.

“Just admit that you like it,” Hunk smiled. Lance huffed and crossed his arms, turning away from them.

Even after his conversation with Hunk and Pidge, he didn’t turn away any of the Yupri. He let them take him aside and groom his ears and hair, then tug him up to go on a hunting lesson, and even let them curl around him for a nap.

He would admit that these little things weren’t just for his benefit either. He had seen every one of these people at the feast last night. There was not one cub there. The youngest looking one there was Refia and obviously, she was at least ten thousand years old and likely older than that. He didn’t know why there weren’t many cubs but if they wanted to spoil one for the first time in a long time, who was he to refuse?

* * *

Soon enough the sun started to set and it was almost time for the full moon. He and the rest of the team gathered at the now empty clearing they had visited the night before. Many of the Yupri were already there, most of them group together and talking amongst themselves.

“Let us all have a good night tonight!” Percival bellowed as a sort of farewell before the full moon began to rise in the sky. As Lance began to shift, he noticed that he didn’t feel any of the pain and sickness he usually felt when he shifted. He hadn’t felt that way since he was a cub.

“So what are we supposed to do tonight?” Pidge asked looking up at Allura and Coran.

“There are plenty of beautiful spots to visit,” Allura suggested.

“Or we can sit in the Castle,” Coran added.

“Where to Allura?” Shiro butted in before Pidge could make a decision. She was about to protest but was interrupted by a jolt to her leg. She looked down and squeaked at what she saw. At the noise, the other’s looked over as well.

“Lance?” Hunk asked in disbelief. The wolf cub looked up at him with wide blue eyes.

“What happened?” Keith asked looking at the Alteans. They could see the Yupri looking over at them curiously, already transformed and some having left already.

“I don’t know,” Allura breathed out in confusion before she transformed into her wolf form.

“Lance, are you alright? What happened?” She asked. Lance looked up at her in amazement.

“Wow! Your fur is so pretty!” He said excitedly, running around her.

“Um, thank you? Do you remember where we are?” She asked, putting her leg out to stop him in his tracks.

“Yeah! We’re on Yupriupra!” He said happily. She blinked and sat back, this was incredibly strange. Maybe it had something to do with the atmosphere? Well, it didn’t really matter, they would have to deal with it for now.

“Are you alright?” A concerned voice broke her thoughts and she found Lance standing in front of her.

“I should be asking you that,” she chuckled weakly.

“Good thing you already did then,” Lance replied cheekily. She huffed fondly and transformed back.

“It seems like he transformed back into a cub, mentally as well, although he does remember where we are,” she informed them.

“So what do we do?” Hunk asked.

“I believe the best course of action is for Coran and I to stay here with him, the rest of you can do whatever you want,”

“Sounds good to me,” Keith said immediately. The rest of the paladins looked at him but he only gave them a shrug in response.

“Well, alright then, I guess we’ll meet you back here at sunrise,” Shiro agreed. They watched Coran and Allura both transform and follow Lance further into the forest before turning to head back to the Castle.

* * *

Keeping track of Lance throughout the night was surprisingly not as nerve-wracking as they thought it would be. He would run around the large fields of the planet and whenever they came across someone else, Lance would run back and hide between Coran’s front legs.

So many wolves came up to interact with the boy, it seemed like they were waiting in line one after the other. Even though he would cower beneath Coran for a few minutes, he also summoned the courage to come out again. Without a second’s hesitation they would slam down to the ground in a playful stance, their tags wagging madly behind them. Lance instantly started bouncing around and shot like a bullet after the other wolf, trying in vain to catch up to them.

It wasn’t long before Lance was lying against Coran, snoozing softly into his fur. He watched Allura in the distance. They had found Refia and Percival after a few hours and had tagged along with them as they walked through the forest. He turned his attention to Lance and thought of everything that had happened that day and night. It broke his heart to see the Yupri so affected by the cub.

He remembered the last time that he was here. When the then alpha, not Percival, traded his species ability to have cubs in exchange for their immortality. After they got rid of him, they contacted every slightly magically species they could. To no avail obviously. Hopefully, it wouldn’t pain them much when it was time to say goodbye to Lance.

* * *

Lance could feel himself shifting back into his human form, and felt one of the Castle ship’s blankets being thrown around him. He blearily blinked open his eyes before wincing and shutting them again. He clutched the blanket tightly around his shoulder and swayed slightly.

“What happened?” He rasped pressing his hand into his eye.

“When you transformed, for some reason you transformed into a cub,” Coran explained quietly, trying not to cause more pain in his head.

“What?” he asked quietly in confusion.

“We’re not really sure what happened, we’re just glad that you went back to normal without any obvious problems,” Allura said softly.

“I’m really tired,” Lance admitted, his shoulders slumping slightly.

“Oh, well then let’s say our goodbyes and we’ll be on our way,” Coran said, putting his arm around Lance and steering him towards the Yupri.

“It’s time we left, thank you for everything you’ve done for us,” Allura smiled, bowing slightly.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” Percival said, returning the bow. He turned to Lance.

“Lance, it’s been an honour to meet you,” he once again fell into a bow, this time directed towards the blue paladin. Without hesitation, Lance bowed as well.

“The honour was all mine,” he stated honestly. He startled slightly when a hand landed on his shoulder and he looked up into Percival’s face. With a kind smile, he pulled Lance into a hug.

“If you ever find the need for another one, you can call Yupriupra home,” he said quietly. Lance smiled and wrapped his arms around him as well.

“I’ll keep that in mind,”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For your wolf Lance au what about they go to a planet where they treat Lance like an animal and take him away. The team finds him with a collar and hurt from trying to get away... idk I love your writing your amazing

As more and more planets became aware of Lance’s ability to switch forms, Lance became more comfortable leaving the Castle in his wolf form, preferring it over his human form even. As a wolf, he felt more capable of protecting his team if they unknowingly walked into danger. Unfortunately, he had already been right about this assumption before but was able to act quickly to not let things get out of hand. It hasn’t happened since.

Not until now.

Not that something happened to the rest of the team, it was only him that was singled out. They didn’t necessarily come for a planetside visit though, they came for a battle. They got it. As soon as they were in close range, Shiro dropped Lance to the surface and he started taking out the foot soldiers, making sure that they weren’t able to harm any civilians.

He didn’t notice the terrified looks that he got from them as he turned back to battle.

It was only after the battlefield was clear that he found out they didn’t know who he was. Or didn’t like who or what he was.

As he stood panting in the middle of victory, his legs shaking in exhaustion, blood drying on his matted fur, he looked around in confusion at the silence that permeated the air. He made sure that there was little to no casualties, so where was the celebration?

He let out a loud yelp as a ligature of some kind was thrown over his head and pulled taut against his neck. His head whipped around to see one of the aliens tugging at the cord before he could make a move towards them, another cord was overlapping the first. They pulled at the cords, dragging him further into the woods. He dug his paws into the ground trying to resist the pull but they were far stronger than him and easily had him moving forward.

He desperately looked up at the sky for any sign of his teammates but wasn’t able to see them through the dense canopy of the trees. Even though there were only two of the aliens single-handedly pulling him to god only knows where; panic was coursing through his veins. His eyes darted around looking for any means of escape. He tried pulling against them, tugging them in a different direction, anything to lose their hold on him but nothing worked.

Finally, though they stopped and one of them went to work tying the end of the cords around the base of a thick tree. The other stood at the side, carefully watching Lance. He took it as his time to strike.

He bared his teeth with a growl and lunged.

He didn’t get far. Immediately, the one standing guard struck out, some sort of stick materializing in his hand. It hit him in the side of the muzzle, hard enough to knock out a tooth. He whined, stepping back and shaking his head in shock. He snarled lifting his head up and glaring at the smirking aliens.

“Stay down you filthy animal,” he sneered, waving the stick threateningly. Without his consent, his ears folded back and he tucked his tail. Though he wanted to stand up to his attackers, he also didn’t want to be hit again when he was already tired and weak after the battle.

“Why aren’t we taking care of it now?” The one tying him up asked.

“It will take to much time, we’ll do it after we meet the paladins,” he explained, excitement lacing his tone as he talked about his teammates. About him.

At the mention of them, his struggles started again and he pulled back on the cords, digging them into the back of his neck painfully.

“Let’s go,” one of them muttered, not paying attention to the wolf anymore. Not that Lance was complaining, too wrapped up in trying to get free from his hopefully temporary prison.

His claws dug deep into the ground as he yanked against the tree, choking himself slightly as he tried to snap the cord but it stayed strong, denting into the bark of the tree and cutting into Lance’s neck, drawing rivets of blood that matted his fur. He let out a pitiful whine, moving on to bite at the wire instead, not caring about the sharp metal that cut into his gums, turning his usually white fangs red with his own blood.

After a while of struggling, he stood back on trembling legs, trying to force himself to calm slightly. He needed to change back, then he could just slip out and run back to the Castle. Naked or not, anything was better than being stuck in that forest until either his team found him or his capturers came back to finish the job, whatever that might be.

He closed his eyes, waiting for the familiar feeling of change to wash over but after a few seconds, nothing happened. Maybe it was because of the adrenaline still pumping through his veins, or the ever ensuing panic that clawed at his mind at heart but he wasn’t changing back. His breaths came out shaky and uneven as he tried to think through the predicament but nothing would come to him besides,

_I need to get home._

_I need to find my friends._

_Where are my friends?_

_I want them_

_Where are they_

_Help me_

_I don’t want to be here_

He didn’t know why it was affecting him so much. It could have been because of the stories his Abuela told him before bed of hunters tracking down bad werewolves and trapping them. It could have been the fact that the aliens said they would take care of him soon. It may have even been the little voice in the back of his head telling him that because he got captured that he wasn’t worthy of being rescued.

But all he wanted was to go home.

He could see all of them in his mind, reaching out to him but not able to grab on. He raced after their silhouettes but he couldn’t keep up.

He wasn’t even thinking when he tilted his head back and let out a mournful howl. One after another they drifted into the sky, sorrowful cries replacing the sounds of a battle only just finished.

* * *

The paladins waited outside of the palace, looking around for any sign of their teammate. They were surrounded on all sides by the aliens of the planet, asking for pictures or autographs from them while Allura and Coran handled talking to the leaders of the planet. They only absentmindedly paid attention to the swarming crowd, instead, looking over their heads for even a glimpse of Lance.

“I don’t like this, he would usually be here by now,” Hunk said quietly, leaning over to talk into Shiro’s ear.

“I know, but we have nothing to go on right now, we can’t just leave and wander aimlessly,” Shiro replied, concern clearly written on his face. “As soon as we get any word we’re leaving,” the rest of them nodded in agreement, still not fully committed to the meet and greet. Shiro turned away and walked over to Allura and Coran, who both glanced over at his arrival.

“Any word on Lance?” He asked, gravely they shook their heads. Shiro sighed, rubbing the back of his neck in thought.

It wasn’t like him to not check in with them or meet them right after the battle. Of course, they were worried but they hadn’t got any word that Lance was injured from any of the civilians so they had to assume that he was safe for now. Hopefully, he would come trotting over by the time they were done dealing with the grateful aliens and they would be quickly on their way back home to shower and sleep for the rest of the day.

Suddenly the crowd fell silent as a loud howl rang out of the forest. The paladins perked up at the familiar sound, looking back at Shiro. He nodded and immediately they were sprinting towards the source of the sound, brushing low hanging branches out of their faces as they rushed through the foliage.

What they ran to, broke their hearts.

He sat on his haunches, head tilted back towards the sky, his ears folded tight against his head, wailing sadly at the top of his lungs. His fur was darkened around the neck where a silver looking cord was pulled tightly against his neck. He was so engrossed in his sorrowful song that he didn’t notice their presence behind him until one of them stepped on a twig and snapped it.

His howl cut off and he whirled around, tail tucking in fear and he hunched closer to the ground, his eyes wide. Shiro carefully crept forward, his hands in front of him and a soft smile on his face.

“Hey bud, we’re here to get you,” he said quietly, coming within easy range of Lance. It only took a second for Lance to quickly pad over and push his head in Shiro’s stomach. His heart sank as he carefully scratched Lance’s ears, careful to avoid the wounds circling Lance’s neck. He trembled beneath his hands, soft whines puffing out of his mouth as he pushed further into Shiro’s warmth.

Keith cut through the wires, Hunk and Pidge holding them so they didn’t pull on the lacerations they left behind. As gently as they could, they loosened the cords and lifted them off of his neck.

“C’mon bud, let’s get you to the infirmary,” he said. His hand never left Lance’s back as they walked back to Black.

* * *

When Lance transformed to go into the cryopod, they could clearly see the damage that had been done. His neck, all around had been sliced open and deep bruising had already set in around them. There was also a bruise on his jaw that was steadily swelling and from the scans of the pod revealed to have a crack running through the bone.

They could only imagine what had done that to Lance. For all they knew, it was the Galra that had caught him and tied him to the tree, for nothing more than to prolong his torment.

They would only know after Lance got out of the pod.


	8. Chapter 8

He should’ve known something was wrong when Shiro stopped trying to seek him out. Everyone knew from the beginning that Shiro was a dog fanatic who missed his dog and was constantly giving him attention. Even if he wasn’t Shiro’s main source of comfort, there weren’t many days where he wasn’t loitering by his side waiting for some petting.

The first time it happened was shortly after he was rescued by Keith and made his first appearance from his room. He was standing alone in the bridge going over some of the maps that they received from the blade.

He ran in and trotted over to Shiro’s side; his tongue hanging out and tail wagging 100 miles an hour. He pressed his nose into the back of Shiro’s leg and sat down waiting for him to turn around. After a few minutes passed, he circled around to the front of him and let out a small bark, but Shiro didn’t even look at him. Again, he sat behind him and let out a little whine and nudged him a bit.

“Lance leave me alone!” Shiro finally snapped, looking down at him. Lance’s tail stopped wagging immediately and his mouth clicked shut. He let out a confused whine and went forward to sniff him curiously. Shiro was quick to harshly push him away with his knee and he stumbled back.

“I said leave me alone!” He growled as Lance’s nose wrinkled at the strange smell that was coming off the man. It was kind of like antiseptic, nothing too strong but strong enough for Lance to detect it.

“I SAID LEAVE!” He yelped and tore out of the room when Shiro stomped in front of him threateningly.

That’s how his relationship with the clone went; he didn’t transform around him, he didn’t walk around the Castle as a wolf, too afraid that Shiro would walk around the corner and spot him.

* * *

The first problem was getting used to Shiro again.

Everyone was waiting anxiously for their leader to wake up. They decided to wait it out on the planet and give him time to wake up before they got going. Usually, Lance would be in his wolf form and snuggling up beside Shiro to keep him warm and comfortable, but after the last couple of months with the clone, he was hesitant to do so.

“We’ll let you know when he wakes up,” Keith told them.

“Are you sure? We could stay up with you,” Lance tried but Keith only sent him a smile.

“It’s better if one of us is tired over all of us, I’ll be fine,” he promised. The reluctantly agreed and curled into their sleeping bags around the fire. Lance shifted and walked over to Shiro hesitantly. He looked up at Keith questioningly and received a small nod and smile in return. Like many times before, he curled up beside Shiro and laid his head on his chest, relieved to feel the chest moving steadily under his chin.

He woke up the next morning to fingers scratching between his ears. Automatically his tail started thumping against the ground and nuzzled down into the warmth. He heard a deep chuckle and opened his eyes, looking right into Shiro’s silver ones. He yelped and scrambled away from him, his tail tucked and ears pressed against his head.

“Lance?” Shiro asked in confusion, struggling to push himself up. When he was up, he reached out towards the wolf. Lance knew that this wasn’t the Shiro that hurt him, more than anything this was the Shiro that loved him more than everyone else.

He carefully walked forward, watching Shiro with unblinking eyes and sniffed the outstretched hand. There must be something about soul and quintessence because now, Shiro actually smelled like himself. He pushed forward and sat in front of Shiro, his muscles shaking slightly but he was determined not to run away anymore.

He startled slightly at the hands that reached up and smoothed his ears down and glanced up at Shiro. He was biting his lip, his eyes misted up.

“Did he hurt you?” He rasped. Lance looked away from him; he didn’t say anything but Shiro knew. “I’m so sorry Lance,”

Lance quickly shifted to his half-form and grabbed Shiro’s hand.

“It wasn’t you Shiro,” he argued.

“I know, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t apologize for it,” he said, looking down at the ground.

“I guess that’s true, I just don’t want to be afraid of you, I want to go back to before we battled Zarkon,” Lance trailed off. “I think I’ll just need a little bit of time,” Lance admitted. Shiro nodded and smiled.

“Take all the time you need,”

Lance smiled and thanked him before getting up and helping Shiro to his feet. They might be there for a little while but they would be able to fix their relationship before they started travelling back to Earth.

* * *

The other problem was Keith’s new wolf friend. At first, he was wary of him, and for good reason too. The morning he talked with Shiro; the first thing he did when he trotted out of Black, Krolia by his side, was attack.

He sprinted to Lance, bowling him over and started aggressively snapping his teeth in his face as Lance tried to push him away with all four paws. He struggled and yelped fearfully, not thinking to fight back against the attacker.

“YORAK!” Keith yelled, yanking the wolf back by the scruff of his neck. Lance scrambled to his feet and pushed between Hunk and Allura to hide behind their legs. He shook in fear and made himself look as submissive as possible.

“Lance, I’m so sorry,” Keith sputtered, tugging Yorak back over to Krolia. “He’s never done anything like that,”

“It’s okay, he startled me,” he said, taking in harsh breaths.

After that morning though, Yorak just became annoying. He was a tease, that’s for sure. He would teleport away from Lance, or teleport beside him. He became really old, really quick. That wasn’t the only thing though, he started to take all the attention away from him. Instead of his teammates seeking out him for comfort, they would find Yorak first, and for some reason that bothered him.

Maybe because he liked having people that depended on him. Or maybe it was because he just found Yorak annoying as fuck.

“Greetings Lance,”

He literally sounded like a fucking Disney villain.

“Yorak,” he greeted half-heartedly, turning to watch the wolf trot up to him. He wasn’t even sure why he was so scared of Yorak in the first place; he may be bigger than Lance and was able to get the drop on him that one time but that was it. Now he just constantly looked for Lance’s attention.

“You seem a bit down Lance, is there anything I can do for you?” He asked, looking over him carefully. Lance sighed and grumbled.

“Nope, everything’s fine,”

“Are you sure? We’re teammates now aren’t we? You can confide in me,” Yorak implored.

“Teammates don’t attack other teammates,” Lance huffed, walking away.

“I believe I apologized for that Lance,” Yorak replied. Lance rolled his eyes as much as he could.

“No, actually you didn’t, but good try,”

“Oh, well then I apologize Lance,” he said after a moment, trotted quickly to walk beside Lance.

Damn it, now he didn’t have a reason to be salty.

“Fine, I’m gonna tell you the same thing I told Shiro, I need time,” he said.

“Understood,” Yorak said, giving him a short nod.

* * *

He couldn’t say that Yorak didn’t try. He actually did, he started trying to bond with the team, following behind Lance as if he was the bigger wolf. He helped all three of them; Lance, Shiro, and Yorak when Shiro would let Yorak cuddle with him until Lance was comfortable with him again.

That whole month, Lance barely transformed back into a human. It was honestly the most comfortable he’s been since they weren’t constantly being brought to some weird planet with a weird atmosphere or moon.

“What are you doing?” He asked one night when Yorak curled around him one night as the paladins started falling asleep around them.

“This is how my pack used to go to sleep, is it different in your pack?” He asked.

“Well, no,”

“It’s been a very long time since I had a pack, I’m glad that there is one being I can consider kin,” he trailed off, slow breaths taking over instead.

He was glad that Yorak and Krolia were going to be going with them. If he was excited just to meet Lance, he’d be over the moon to meet the rest of his family.

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me at my Tumblr too!: https://blueplanettrash.tumblr.com/


End file.
